Breaking News: Microsoft will offer Office as a service


From the WSJ:

Microsoft Corp. is creating online services coupled with its two major software lines -- Windows and Office -- that are designed to open new opportunities for the company to sell subscriptions or advertising associated with its software.

The offerings include Office Live, an online version of its Office suite of business productivity applications. The service is designed to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to set up and maintain Office than it is today.

This is a direct response to Google+Sun, which Larry Page declined.

In another thrust, Microsoft plans to offer elements of its MSN online service to Windows users under an online service called Windows Live. The Windows Live service will house Microsoft's Messenger instant-messaging service, a new Web mail service dubbed Kahuna and Microsoft Spaces, the company's service for creating the online postings known as Web logs, or blogs"

This seems like a resurgence of Active Desktop circa IE 4.0?

Halloween Mind Teaser

A buddy sent me this link.

Can you find the 3 differences in these two pictures? I have only found 2 so far.


Happy Halloween!

Hype!

A few months ago, I plunged into a new world of communications. Immediately folks I worked with threw jargons at me - SIP, Wi-Max/Wi-fi, IMS, IPTV, VoD and on...

This article on LightReading does a good job of demystifying the hype and reality.

VoIP Investments

Om comments here that (VoIP) Forecast Calls For Pain VoIP revenues per Frost & Sullivan are peaking at $4B by 2010.

I agree with the assessment that VoIP will continue to be a second line and not a primary replacement of the PSTN line unless bundled in some form of a triple play offering. The only fly in the ointment here is that Comcast (very visionary) has although rightly put this as a phone service (not a VoIP service), they continue to charge a price premium than a Vonage which does not make sense.

True value from triple plays is by offering new services - not just consolidated billing - to justify the price premium.

Management gets analytical, and why IT needs to wake up


Amazing that how the same principles apply to large and small companies. HP's Mark Hurd has a candid interview here. Guess what I like - start with the end goal (3 year plan), work backwards, put metrics in place and then go from there. Funny how matrix structures have a way of destroying accountability, strategic thinkers devoid of execution and lack of appreciation of systems.

I used feel back for IT folks complaining about business users, but now I see why - the problem is on both sides.

IT treat business users are a necessary "pain-in-the-ass" constantly demanding change just when everything is "stable", so they retaliate by making things as hard as possible, like punching in a 5 digit code before every non-local call.

Reality is that there is an awareness problem. IT people - get out of your cubes and sit with the business users.Spend time understanding how users use tech, and help them. Then see how the appreciation flows your way. Good luck!

Om Malik’s Broadband Blog ? Telecom’s continuing death spiral

Ran into Larry Grey of Grey Sparling PeopleSoft Expert's Corner in San Ramon yesterday. He's started a company called Grey Sparling Solutions Inc. with a couple of ex-PeopleSofters.

The classic pattern of all new companies is to include some form of blogging as connectors to the marketplace, and Im glad to see Larry starting off the right way. Pick these guys if you are a PeopleSoft customer and want to continue to leverage your investment with additional innovation in 8.4x, 9x be damned!

So you got a raise?

Hilarious!
Dilbert Comic Strip Archive - Dilbert.com - The Official Dilbert Website by Scott Adams - Dilbert, Dogbert and Coworkers!

Think of men as hunters and women as farmers in India?

Read the autobiography of Sudha Murthy, the "real" founder of Infosys...
WWW
Nithin on ? Story of Narayana Murthy And Sudha

Infosys loses sales head, 4 others to follow

Per this report
CIOL : Executive Track : Basab Pradhan quits Infosys

Wipro's Vivek Paul starts a new journey

Here's why:
The inside story: Why Vivek Paul quit Wipro

Video blogging tips

Shooting Web video: How to put your readers at the scene

Om draws a nice parallel between 747 and PCs, IP networks.
Om Malik’s Broadband Blog ? Did Silicon Valley Build Its Own 747?

Flickr Art: Creativity in the strangest places

Check out this creative collage on Flickr - this was created by programmatically combining 50 images of pictures that users have tagged the same.

Different angle, same thing

Lessig referred to JC Watts. Who's he? After some Yahoo-ing I discovered a speech given by Watts to the NRA.

Watts makes a powerful point- is spirituality being erased in the name of political correctness? I attended a "convent" high school with was run by a catholic church, and being essentially an Hindu did NOT make me a convert, or hate christianity. It had the opposite effect - better understanding of a different religion makes me appreciate what are the good parts in both, and empathize better with other cultures.

I worry now about my daughter about to enter kindergarten in a month in the USA growing up without any spirituality besides the one at home, which she surely will not pay attention to since it is perceived as so wrong in the outside world.

Lessig's presentation style

I've listened to Larry Lessig's presentations on freedom from copyrights for sometime now thanks to ITConversations, but never got a chance to watch them. You can see what impressed the auidence so much here.

I'm truly transformed today.

Time for a change

Decided to change the name of this blog to reflect something bigger than one's job. Sure, for a long period of time it defined who I was. But no more.

EDS is rumored to sell A.T Kearney

Per the WSJ, EDS CEO considers management consulting "non-core" and wants to focus on basic outsourcing. Its ironic that other India based firms are coming from exactly the opposite direction and are expanding into management consulting. Maybe Infosys or someone will consider this purchase?

CRM in the mobile world Enpocket - Products and Services.

Voice Scrambler for cubicle privacy

I need one of
The New York Times > Technology > these Electronic Silencers.